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This spring, the fight to protect free speech in Canada continuesTuesday April 3rd, 2018
Never has freedom of speech been so vulnerable in Canada, but I will be privileged to take personal inspiration and hope for change on this front at three events on my spring calendar.On April 26 in Montreal, as chair of the committee that is mounting the event, I will be introducing Jordan Peterson, keynote speaker for the Montreal Press Club’s inaugural freedom award ceremony, honour...

Getting to the heart of what M-103 was always all aboutWednesday March 14th, 2018
On Feb. 1, the National Heritage Committee submitted the report called for by the passage of M-103 last winter.M-103 surprised its backers when it turned out not to be the slam dunk they thought it would be, given that its founding predecessor document, Petition e-411, which called for a “whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religion, including Is...

There’s no safe space on campus to debate bathroom politicsTuesday March 6th, 2018
Heather Brown, a third year Business student at Trent University, is no transphobe. She takes a live-and-let-live approach in gender matters.But Trent has instituted a policy of gender-neutral washrooms, and Brown balks at sharing intimate space with members of the biologically opposite sex. She discovered that expression of her discomfort is more than unwelcome on her campus; it has literal...

Collapse of basic fact-checking helps feed the fake-news narrativeWednesday February 21st, 2018
Fake news is a big problem. Increasingly, serious citizens look to mainstream media for responsible reportage. When media betrays the public’s trust, it’s scary. And the media does fall short, sadly, both in matters large, which arouse public ire, and in matters that are only apparently small, and don’t. Not by publishing purposefully fake news, but by publishing “new...

Delaware students can now choose their own race. This should end wellTuesday February 13th, 2018
The state of Delaware is poised to adopt what is known as “Regulation 225.” Approved both by the Delaware State Education Association and Gov. John Carney, Regulation 225 would safeguard children’s “protected characteristics,” such as gender, age, race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Section 7.4(1) of 225’s Prohibition of Discrimination Code state...

The #MeToo court of public opinion needs some ground rules, fastTuesday January 30th, 2018
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s courtship of his wife, Chirlane McCray, has all the makings of a Hollywood romcom. They met in 1991 when she started working at New York City Hall. He — according to a 2013 New York Times profile on the story, a “lanky, bearded operative across the building” — was instantly attracted to her, but she had “zero interest”...

B.C. school official protests ‘transgender education’ — and pays the priceWednesday January 24th, 2018
Barry Neufeld, a long-time trustee of British Columbia’s Chilliwack School District, hadn’t planned to find himself at the centre of a legal battle, whose outcome could have far-reaching consequences for gender-related teaching programs across Canada.But on Jan. 22, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF, on whose board I sit), announced it will be defending Neufeld...

Canadians don’t need a ‘National Day’ scolding us for being IslamophobicWednesday January 17th, 2018
The federal government has been asked by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) to declare Jan. 29, the first anniversary of a murderous attack on a Quebec mosque that left six dead and several others injured, a “National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia.”
The word Islamophobia is something of a trigger to some of us, as NCCM knows well. The group was in...

Fighting off the chill (no pun intended) against skeptical climate scienceTuesday January 16th, 2018
Yes, the Earth is warming. How much and how fast is so far all hypothesis. It is therefore imperative that scientists be free to debate each other’s theories
Baby, it was cold outside. I’ve felt grateful the past few weeks that I live in a draft-free house with a reliable furnace. Another reason for gratitude: the recent record-breaking low temperatures served to embarras...

Fighting off the chill (no pun intended) against skeptical climate scienceTuesday January 9th, 2018
Baby, it was cold outside. I’ve felt grateful the past few weeks that I live in a draft-free house with a reliable furnace. Another reason for gratitude: the recent record-breaking low temperatures served to embarrass the global-warming Chicken Littles.Climate skeptics never claim that record-breaking cold is a sign of global cooling. It’s time for climate alarmists to stop insis...

Confessions of an underperforming grandmother … 'Regrets, I’ve had a few'Saturday January 6th, 2018
I’m at the age (considered significant if you believe Hallmark) where, when I hear Sinatra singing, “Regrets, I’ve had a few …”, I feel myself nodding where I used only to hum along.
So regrets, yes, I’ve had a few — and not too few to mention, either.
I should, for example, have lived alone, even for a few months, in my own pad some...

Confessions of an underperforming grandmother … ‘Regrets, I’ve had a few’Friday December 29th, 2017
I’m at the age (considered significant if you believe Hallmark) where, when I hear Sinatra singing, “Regrets, I’ve had a few …”, I feel myself nodding where I used only to hum along.So regrets, yes, I’ve had a few — and not too few to mention, either.I should, for example, have lived alone, even for a few months, in my own pad somewhere between the family...

A sadly necessary handbook for men falsely accused of sexual assaultThursday December 21st, 2017
It is a sad commentary on our culture that few people care what happens to men falsely charged with sex crimes
Liam Allan, a 22-year old London, England-area criminology student, spent two years “in a terrible form of limbo” when he was charged with 12 counts of rape, based on allegations by a woman (unnamed) with whom he had had a consensual sexual relationship.
...

Parents face scorn for worrying about letting their children change gendersThursday December 21st, 2017
The “identity model” of working with transgender people stipulates that it is wrong to question someone's self-determined identity. The mental health model looks at the underlying causes of distress and seeks to alleviate or manage symptoms.
In a December 7th article, sexologists J. Michael Bailey and Ray Blanchard, unafraid of taking on difficult topics, descr...

A sadly necessary handbook for men falsely accused of sexual assaultTuesday December 19th, 2017
Liam Allan, a 22-year old London, England-area criminology student, spent two years “in a terrible form of limbo” when he was charged with 12 counts of rape, based on allegations by a woman (unnamed) with whom he had had a consensual sexual relationship.Had Allan been convicted, he’d have spent years behind bars and been permanently inscribed as a sex offender. In what seem...

Parents face scorn for worrying about letting their children change gendersWednesday December 13th, 2017
In a December 7th article, sexologists J. Michael Bailey and Ray Blanchard, unafraid of taking on difficult topics, describe three basic types of gender dysphoria (which is when someone feels they’re not the same gender as their biological sex). Posted on 4thWaveNow, a discussion group for skeptics of the growing phenomenon of transgendered children and minors, their article lists the ...

Germany was determined to expunge dangerous anti-Semitism. Now it's backThursday December 7th, 2017
Bad things that are tips of bad icebergs shouldn’t happen to good people. But if they must, it’s as well they happen to people with influence to command respectful attention.
Gordon Wasserman (since 2011 Baron Wasserman) grew up in Montreal, won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, and joined the U.K. Home Office in 1967. He is presently a Conservative member of t...

Germany was determined to expunge dangerous anti-Semitism. Now it’s backWednesday December 6th, 2017
Bad things that are tips of bad icebergs shouldn’t happen to good people. But if they must, it’s as well they happen to people with influence to command respectful attention.Gordon Wasserman (since 2011 Baron Wasserman) grew up in Montreal, won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, and joined the U.K. Home Office in 1967. He is presently a Conservative member of the House of...

Campus free speech advocates owe pro-life students their helpTuesday November 28th, 2017
Amidst the deluge of Twitter postings around the Lindsay Shepherd affair at Wilfrid Laurier University, a Nov. 23 tweet struck me for its hutzpah: “In all of the media frenzy over #LindsayShepherd and #JordanPeterson, has anybody asked how young, vulnerable, often marginalized trans students of #WilfredLaurierUniversity (sic) feel?”Hutzpah, because the tweet’s author was qu...

Let’s hope Canadian courts see the true meaning of the niqabWednesday November 15th, 2017
As was widely anticipated, Quebec’s Bill 62, banning face cover in the realm of public services, will be legally contested: by an individual niqab-wearing woman, supported by the CCLA and the National Council of Canadian Muslims. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is considering how his government too may “weigh in” on the challenge.Amongst the (anglophone) chattering class...